Siegfried Unseld

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Karl Siegfried Unseld (born  September 28, 1924 in Ulm ; †  October 26, 2002 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German publisher . From 1959 until his death in 2002 he was the director of Suhrkamp Verlag .

Life

parents house

Unseld was a son of the administrative clerk Ludwig Unseld and his wife Maria Magdalena Kögel, called Lina. Walter Unseld was his brother, four years his junior.

School time and military service

Unseld spent his first school days in Ulm. In June 1933 he joined the Hitler Youth . There he also met Hans Scholl , who entered shortly after him.

From 1935 Unseld attended the Realgymnasium am Blauring (today Schubart-Gymnasium ) in Ulm. There he graduated from high school in 1942 and left school on October 20. At Christmas 1942 he was drafted into the Navy and trained as a radio operator in Aurich . In the summer of 1943 Unseld was transferred to the Crimea . When his position near Sevastopol was recaptured by the Soviet Navy, Unseld saved himself by swimming out to sea and was picked up hours later by a German speedboat. In mid-May 1944 he was transferred to Varna ( Bulgaria ) and then to Greece . He was able to spend Christmas 1944 in Ulm.

Teaching

Headquarters of the Ulm Aegis publishing house , where Siegfried Unseld did an apprenticeship.

Unseld experienced the end of the war in Flensburg ; in January 1946 he reached his hometown again. In October of the same year he began an apprenticeship as a book trade assistant at Aegis-Verlag in Ulm . In the summer of 1946 he made up his Abitur (quote Unseld: "a real Abitur"); his Abitur essay was dedicated to the subject of Faust and Wagner - two people, two worlds . In September 1947 Unseld passed his assistant examination at the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce . One of the auditors was the publisher Paul Siebeck , owner of JCB Mohr Verlag in Tübingen .

Career entry and study at the same time

Convinced of Unseld, Siebeck hired him on the day of the exam. Unseld accepted the offer and began in October 1947, parallel to his work, to study German, philosophy and library science at the university. He was u. a. Student of the philosopher Wilhelm Weischedel (1905–1975), who was very committed to Unseld from the start.

On April 14, 1951 Unseld married the home economics teacher Hildegard Schmid in Ulm Minster . Besides twins, who died very early, he had a son with her, who would later become publisher Joachim Unseld .

Unseld completed his studies at the University of Tübingen with a dissertation on Hermann Hesse , thereby breaking some rules: Until 1951, it was common to only research deceased writers, and Hesse was also controversial. Another problem arose when Unseld's doctoral supervisor , Friedrich Beißner , learned that Unseld had already been called "doctor" in a letter from Hesse, although he had not yet taken the exam. Beißner examined Unseld, probably as a punishment, only in Old High German , the only one that Unseld had never learned.

On July 24, 1951, the doctoral process was completed and Unseld received the academic degree Dr. phil. Walter Jens , Gerhard Storz , Johannes Poethen , Peter Meuer and Martin Walser sat with him in Beißner's doctoral college .

Bookseller and employment relationship at Suhrkamp

In the same year Unseld began to work as a bookseller in Heidenheim an der Brenz . On October 23, the first meeting between Peter Suhrkamp and Siegfried Unseld took place and on January 7, 1952 Unseld began working at Suhrkamp. With effect from January 1, 1955, Suhrkamp granted Unseld power of attorney ; traveled in the same year Unseld July-August for the first time in the United States : at the Harvard Summer School of Arts and Sciences had Henry Kissinger an International Seminar established in this he was able to participate with letters of recommendation from Hermann Hesse and Peter Suhrkamp.

Around 1955 Unseld began a long affair with Corinne Pulver , a sister of the actress Liselotte Pulver . With Corinne he had a daughter, Ninon Pulver, born 1959, today a lawyer in Geneva (Ninon was the first name of Hermann Hesse's third wife).

On January 1, 1958, Unseld rose to become a partner in the publishing house. The decisive factor was that he should be poached from Ullstein AG . During these years Unseld had close contacts with almost all members of Group 47 .

Publisher Unseld

Sole publisher

Grave in Frankfurt

After the death of Peter Suhrkamp in 1959, Unseld took over the Suhrkamp Verlag as the sole publisher.

Insel Verlag

During this time, the West German publishing house of Insel Verlag , which was initially based in Wiesbaden in 1945 - the East German publishing part remained in Leipzig - settled in Frankfurt am Main. The publisher's financial situation was a bit difficult and the owner Jutta von Hesler , the daughter of the founder Anton Kippenberg , wanted to sell today rather than tomorrow. Unseld was able to win the entrepreneurs Peter Reinhart and Balthasar Reinhart from Winterthur into a silent partnership through Hermann Hesse . On February 19, 1963, Suhrkamp Verlag bought Insel Verlag retroactively to January 1st.

Nomos publishing house

On July 1 of the same year Unseld bought the legal specialist publisher Lutzeyer in Baden-Baden . The most important assets for Suhrkamp Verlag were the Lutzeyer printing works. This publisher still operates today under the name Nomos Verlag (Greek: secular law ). Since the turnover of the Suhrkamp Verlag skyrocketed in the next few years, it became more and more an economic factor for the Swiss partner Reinhart.

Conflict with the editors

In 1968 there was a conflict between Unseld and the editors of the Suhrkamp publishing house (including Walter Boehlich , Urs Widmer , Karlheinz Braun , Klaus Reichert and Peter Urban ). In the spirit of the 1968 movement, these demanded more co-determination and demanded the establishment of a "lecturer's meeting" that should make all the important decisions. Unseld should belong to it as a simple member, so would in fact have been disempowered as a publisher. Unseld defended his decision-making power. He succeeded in this not least because he secured the support of prominent authors.

The conflict was not mentioned in the Suhrkamp publishing history 1950–1990 (1990); it was not until 2010 that a chronicle appeared with Unseld's version of the events. In 2011, former editors published their presentation in the book Chronicle of the editors. From Suhrkamp to the publishing house of the authors .

Since the Wall was built, Unseld has been campaigning to enable publishers from the GDR to present themselves at the Frankfurt Book Fair . This was held against them for years.

On September 28, 1974, Unseld's 50th birthday was celebrated on a grand scale in Königstein , Suhrkamp's last place of residence. Almost 250 guests were invited, the philosopher Ernst Bloch acted as the main speaker and the evening was musically accompanied by Milva , who performed songs with Brecht texts.

German classic publisher

The German classics Verlag was founded on 1 July 1981 as a subsidiary of the island publishing house. Unseld convened a commission consisting of Professors Reinhard Brinkmann , Wolfgang Frühwald , Reinhart Koselleck , Jochen Schmidt and Albrecht Schöne to oversee the editorial plan. The first volumes were published in 1985.

Family reorganization

In 1985 the Unselds separated because the wife no longer wanted to tolerate his affairs. At that time Unseld was already in a relationship with the writer and former actress Ulla Berkéwicz , whom he married in 1990. Joachim Unseld joined Suhrkamp Verlag on January 1st, 1988 as an equal partner of his father. But after a short time there was a heated argument between father and son. Since the attempts at arbitration by Hans Magnus Enzensberger , Martin Walser and Jürgen Habermas did not help either, Joachim Unseld left the publishing house in 1991. The dispute was related to the growing influence of Ulla Berkéwicz on Suhrkamp Verlag.

Owner and share rights

As the owner of Insel Verlag, Unseld registered his rights to the East German Insel Verlag in Leipzig in 1990, and Insel Verlag Leipzig was also awarded to him a year later. Unseld was also significantly involved in the so-called  additional edition processes . In it, West German publishers demanded fees that arose from the fact that GDR publishers had printed higher editions than agreed for West German licensed titles. In the end, the debts had to be paid 1: 1 in Deutsche Mark.

In 1999, the Swiss Volkart Holding AG (board member: Andreas Reinhart ) sold parts of its shares in Suhrkamp KG and Suhrkamp Verlagsleitung GmbH to Unseld after the latter had a large amount of assets available through the sale of Nomos Verlag, which is part of the Suhrkamp publishing group. This finally gave him an absolute majority (namely 51%) in the company, after having transferred 20% of the company shares in Suhrkamp KG to his son a few years earlier. Since after the dispute with his son he was no longer an option as his successor, Unseld founded the Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation in 1999 ; with this he wanted to finally settle his succession.

At the beginning of 2002 Siegfried Unseld became seriously ill, suffered a heart attack in the summer and died on the night of October 25th to 26th, 2002 at the age of 78 in his home in Frankfurt. He found his final resting place in the Frankfurt main cemetery .

His second wife, Ulla Berkéwicz and Martin Walser, each addressed the biography of Siegfried Unseld in a key novel.

estate

Siegfried Unseld's estate is in the German Literature Archive in Marbach . The holdings of the Siegfried Unseld Archive include the archives of Suhrkamp Verlag (including Insel Verlag , Jüdischer Verlag and Deutscher Klassiker Verlag ). In addition, there are the personal estates of Siegfried Unseld and Peter Suhrkamp . Parts of the archive can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the Modern Literature Museum in Marbach.

Honors

Siegfried Unseld Prize

In memory of Siegfried Unseld, the Siegfried Unseld Foundation has awarded the Siegfried Unseld Prize since 2004 .

Publications (selection)

  • Encounters with Hermann Hesse . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-518-36718-8 .
  • The author and his publisher . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-518-37704-3 .
  • Hermann Hesse: work and impact history . 2nd Edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-518-03233-X .
  • Peter Suhrkamp. On the biography of a publisher in data, documents and images . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-518-45597-4 (Paperback: 2004).
  • Eberhard Fahlke, Siegfried Unseld: Uwe Johnson: "For when I'm dead" . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-40301-X .
  • Goethe and his publishers . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-458-34200-1 .
  • The Diary of Goethe and Rilke's "Seven Poems". Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1978,ISBN 3-458-19000-7(Insel-Bücherei1000/2).
  • Eberhard Fahlke, Raimund Fellinger (eds.): Uwe Johnson - Siegfried Unseld: The exchange of letters . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-518-41072-5 .
  • Alfred Estermann , Wolfgang Schopf (ed.): "I would like a word ...". Wolfgang Koeppen - Siegfried Unseld. The correspondence . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-41768-1 .
  • Goethe and the Ginkgo. A tree and a poem . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-458-19188-7 (Insel-Bücherei 1188).
  • "And every step is immeasurable" - thoughts about Goethe . Ed .: Hans-Joachim Simm. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-458-19244-1 (Insel-Bücherei 1244).
  • Letters to the authors . Ed .: Rainer Weiss. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-22384-4 .
  • "So I ought to be an angel and not an author" - Adorno and his Frankfurt publishers. The correspondence with Peter Suhrkamp and Siegfried Unseld . Ed .: Wolfgang Schopf. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-58375-1 .
  • Publications 1946 to 1999 - A Bibliography. As of September 28, 1999 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-518-41097-0 .
  • Chronicle: Volume 1: 1970. With the Chronicle Book Fair 1967, Book Fair 1968 and the Chronicle of a Conflict: With the Chronicle of a Book Fair 1967 / Book Fair 1968 and the Chronicle of a Conflict 1968 , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 2010.

Correspondence

literature

  • Authors of the Suhrkamp Verlag: The publisher and his authors - Siegfried Unseld on his sixtieth birthday . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1984.
  • Authors of the Suhrkamp Verlag: The publisher and his authors - Siegfried Unseld on his seventieth birthday . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-40771-6 .
  • Ulla Berkéwicz: Angels are black and white . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-38796-0 (key novel on the person of Siegfried Unseld).
  • Raimund Fellinger , Matthias Reiner (ed.): Siegfried Unseld - His life in pictures and texts. , Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-42460-5 .
  • Peter Michalzik: Unseld - A biography . Goldmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-442-73120-8 (biography which was published during Unseld's lifetime in 2002 and was heavily criticized by Suhrkamp-Verlag. Overall, however, a very well-researched account of Unseld's relationships with his environment - authors, editors , Shareholders; each in a historical context).
  • Ute Schneider:  Unseld, Karl Siegfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-428-11207-5 , pp. 650-652 ( digitized version ).
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 438 f .
  • Rolf Tiedemann : The accounting. Walter Benjamin and his publisher . Kellner, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-927623-91-1 .
  • Martin Walser: Letter to Lord Liszt . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-04632-2 (key novel on the person of Siegfried Unseld).
  • Uwe Wittstock: When Siegfried Unseld died: The legend and the end . In: On Klampen Essay: The Book Drunkards. Forays into the literature business . Dietrich zu Klampen, Springe 2007, ISBN 978-3-86674-005-1 , p. 59-65 .

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Unseld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unseld. A biography. In: Deutschlandfunk . September 22, 2002, accessed December 30, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Ulf Schleth: Chronicle of the Lectors: From Suhrkamp to the publishing house of the authors. In: einsnull.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2019 ; accessed on September 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ without information: Suhrkamp publisher Siegfried Unseld is dead. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 26, 2002, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  4. ^ Siegfried Unseld Archive (SUA). In: German Literature Archive Marbach. Retrieved November 4, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 43, March 9, 1973.
  6. ^ Premio Editore Europeo. In: biblioeuropea.altervista.org. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012 ; Retrieved September 28, 2019 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Unseld, Siegfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unseld, Karl Siegfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher (Suhrkamp-Verlag)
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 2002
Place of death Frankfurt am Main